To be impactful in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition, you’ll need to pay attention to your unit’s Morale gauges. When it’s maxed out, your squads can outmaneuver attacking enemies. While Dawn of War is a streamlined experience, the Morale system does add some complexities, which makes the RTS stand on its own.
In addition to this, when your units have their Morale topped up, their weapons will do more damage. If you understand how the Morale system works in Dawn of War, the system will help you achieve more victories, even on the hardest difficulty. Because once your units have full Morale, what you do in the match will have more weight.
How The Morale System Works
As you hover over your units in Dawn of War, you’ll see two bars: one is green, and the other is blue. The green bar indicates the health of a unit, while the blue shows how much Morale the unit has.
A full bar of Morale means a unit will do more damage, move faster, and their shots will have a higher chance of landing.
But whenever a soldier from a unit is attacked, that unit’s Morale starts to drop. Once the Morale bar empties to zero, that squad will break, negatively affecting the unit’s effectiveness.
Whenever a member of the unit dies, a large chunk of the Morale bar gets removed. If more soldiers go down in any squad, the unit will quickly break. So, reinforce all squads often.
This means the speed, accuracy, and amount of damage the unit does are all reduced with a broken squad and reduced Morale.
To refill the Morale bar, simply step out of combat, and the bar will slowly regenerate itself.
How To Recover And Mitigate Morale
Moving out of the way and into safety is one way of getting your Morale back. However, depending on what race you are and what type of units you have, you may have more options to be combat-ready.
For example, if you have a Space Marine Sergeant or a Commissar, you can employ their abilities that will either bring back Morale to 100 percent, speed up the regeneration rate of Morale, or even negate how much Morale damage you take.
A leader can also speed up how much Morale is being regenerated. Just make sure to attach leaders to the units you want to have a consistent supply of Morale.
On top of that, certain races like Orks have bonuses tied to their abilities, such as Waagh!, which gives them a Morale regeneration boost or immunity.
The amount of Morale you get back and how much Morale Damage you deflect is based on how many Ork units you have placed on the field close to one another.
As you’re raising your Ork army to get the bonuses, keep an eye on your unit cap. This can quickly fill up if you’re not increasing its limit.
There’s also a cover system you can use, but it’s worth mentioning that what type of cover the unit’s in will dictate how much Morale you get back. In Dawn of War, there are two types of cover. They are:
- Light Cover: This will increase your Morale gain by 150 percent.
- Heavy Cover: Using the heavier variant will regenerate the unit’s Morale to about 200 percent.
Units That Impact Morale
If you can bring down a unit’s Morale or repel an attack often, you can easily get through most armies. All the races in Dawn of War can dent the enemy’s morale and may somewhat negate Morale damage.
However, certain races and units will perform more effectively in breaking or countering Morale.
Best Units To Break Morale With
|
Unit |
Description |
|
Rangers |
The marksmen of the Eldar race can inflict a large amount of Morale Damage. But keep in mind to use them at a distance, as they may be easier to kill at melee range. |
|
Salamanders |
These Space Marines use fire-based AoE types of attacks to quickly chip away at a unit’s Morale. |
|
Seraphin Squad |
An infantry unit for the Sisters of Battle. They have abilities like Angelic Visage that increase damage on top of using Immolator Tanks that have flame-based weapons. |
|
Horrors |
Vehicles can represent a large portion of a unit’s Morale. These anti-vehicle units in the Chaos Space Marine race are rather weak, but do a heavy amount of Moral Damage. |
|
Librarian |
When this Force Commander of the Space Marines targets an enemy unit with Weaken Resolve, that squad’s Morale regeneration is reduced by around 90 percent for just under a minute. |
Best Units To Counter Morale Damage
|
Unit |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Orks |
They can use the bonuses from the WAAGH! ability to either recover Morale back quickly or buffer any oncoming damage. |
|
Necrons |
Whenever a unit breaks for Necrons, they won’t lose combat damage. Instead, the broken unit will teleport to a monolith on its own, allowing Morale to regenerate. |
|
Commissars |
These Imperial Guard leaders can execute a member of their unit and restore Morale, all while making the unit immune to any damage for a few seconds. |
|
Librarian |
They can use the Word of the Emperor ability to negate all damage to any infantry unit near them for over ten seconds. Then, those units get twice the amount of Morale regeneration. |